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Woodside gives green light to Skylonda farmers' market

by Dave Boyce

The second Skylonda farmers' market this year, and the first fully legitimate one, is expected to open at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 10, in the parking lot near the corner of Skyline Boulevard and Highway 84 in Woodside.

By a unanimous vote on Sept. 26, the Woodside Planning Commission amended use permits to allow open air sales at 17265 and 17285 Skyline Blvd. No more than eight vendors will be allowed. The decision was made after a discussion of about 25 minutes, said senior planner Sage Schaan.

The farmers' markets will be held on Wednesday afternoons between 3 and 7 p.m. (or dusk, if it comes sooner), with one additional hour at each end for set-up and disassembly.

Items allowed for sale include produce, flowers, plants and prepared foods, according to a Planning Commission staff report. There will be no outdoor cooking. Food trucks will not be a part of the scene, Mr. Schaan said.

"It was never MY intention to interfere with any local businesses," market manager Maggie Foard told the Almanac. "There is a good deli at Skywood Trading Post and good burger scene at Alice's across the street. We have Cafe Questa down in La Honda, The Mountain House a few minutes up the road on King's Mountain (Road) and the Bella Vista. There are good places to eat out. What we don't have up here is a convenient place to shop for fresh goods."

The market will offer local organic vegetables, organic apples, honey, grass-fed beef, wild and sustainable seafood, native plants and seedlings, fresh goat cheese, free-range eggs and goat's-milk chocolate made by Ms. Foard, she said, adding: "Alice's Restaurant across the street will put on (a) weekly Wednesday market menu consisting of ingredients from the market such as a grass-fed burger and a special market salad."

Buying a truckload of broccoli or carrots and showing up claiming to be a local farmer is not allowed. The market is one of 31 certified by the San Mateo County Department of Agriculture/Weights & Measures, which requires that the goods are being sold by the people who produced them. "Truly a farm-to-table transaction," Ms. Foard noted.